Anastasia on Her Own by Lois Lowry Page A

supercool with Sonya. Sonya was constitutionally incapable of being supercool. Sonya's chubby face turned bright pink when she was excited, and she overflowed with excitement most of the time.
    "Guess what, Sonya!" Anastasia squealed into the phone. "Steve called and asked me for a date!"
    There was a shriek and a thump on the other end of the telephone. Anastasia waited, grinning.
    "Here I am again," Sonya announced breathlessly. "I fell on the floor in a faint. You are sooooo lucky, Anastasia! That jerk Norman Berkowitz will probably
never
ask me for a date, at least not until I lose ten pounds and have a whole new body with sex appeal. And right at this very instant I'm eating a Nestle Crunch bar."
    "I thought you were on a diet."
    "I am. But it makes me hungry."
    "Use will power, Sonya," Anastasia said.
    She could hear the rustle of candy bar wrapper over the phone. "There," Sonya told her. "I wrapped the rest of it up. I
am
going to use will power, Anastasia. Call me tomorrow night and remind me. I wish you could come to school, so you could remind me at lunch."
    "Throw the rest of it away, Sonya. Right this instant."
    There was a silence. "Well," Sonya said, "I'll put it in the freezer, behind the hamburger. I'm not strong enough yet to actually throw it away."
    Anastasia was in the middle of her third phone call, to Meredith, when Sam came shivering in from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. Anastasia said a hurried good-bye and turned to her brother.
    "The water got cold," Sam explained. "And it stopped burping."
    "It didn't get the green lines off," Anastasia said, examining him. "Those must be indelible markers. But at least it cured your itching, didn't it?"
    "No," Sam said mournfully. "I still itch."
    Anastasia sighed. "I bet it was baking
soda
I was supposed to use. Well, try not to scratch, Sam. We'll try baking soda tomorrow."
    She combed Sam's damp hair—carefully, because his head was covered with chicken pox—and put his pajamas on. They found their father in the study, listening to music and reading the newspaper.
    "It's almost time for Mom to call," Anastasia said, looking at her watch. "You stay here, Dad, and I'll be by the phone in the kitchen, and Sam, you go up by the phone in Mom and Dad's room, so we can all talk to her.
    "But remember, everybody," she added, "there are certain things that we don't mention."
    "Annie," her father said.
    "Chicken pox," Sam said.
    "Or paper plates," Anastasia said. "Can you remember that, Sam? We'll have a
blood oath
that we won't mention anything that might upset Mom."
    "Yeah," Sam said with delight. "Bludoth."
    The telephone rang at that moment, and Sam and Anastasia dashed to their extensions while their father answered.

    "I'm exhausted," Mrs. Krupnik was saying when Anastasia got to the phone, "but it's such fun. Everybody's so nice, and so helpful—"
    "Do they glitter?" Anastasia asked. "I'm on the extension in the kitchen," she explained. "Sam's upstairs. Say hi, Sam."
    "Hi, Mom," Sam said. "I'm only going to talk about trucks."
    Their mother laughed. "I really miss you guys," she said. "Some people seem to glitter a little, Anastasia. But mostly they're just ordinary. And my clothes seem to be fine."
    "That's a relief. I was really worried about that, Mom."
    "But I want to hear about
you,
" Mrs. Krupnik said. "Is everything going okay? How's the housekeeping schedule working?"
    "The weather wasn't bad today," said their father. "And the car is okay."
    "How was nursery school today, Sam? Is it fun going for a full day?" his mother asked.
    "Blood oath, Sam," muttered Anastasia into the phone.
    "I'm only going to talk about trucks," Sam said.
    Mrs. Krupnik laughed. "Did you play with trucks at school today?"
    Sam was silent for a minute. "Blood oath, Sam," Anastasia murmured.
    "The yellow dump truck goes
'Rrrrrrrrr,'
" Sam said.
    "You should see the trucks in California," Mrs. Krupnik said. "Boy, do they speed along the freeways!"
    "How's the weather out there?"